The present invention relates to a surge pot to be arranged in a fuel tank of a motor vehicle which is intended to be introduced through a mounting opening in the fuel tank and has a container bottom and a side wall.
Such surge pots are used in motor vehicles for collecting fuel from a fuel tank which is almost empty. In this way, the surge pot provides assurance that there is a sufficient supply of fuel to the internal combustion engine of the vehicle for instance upon travel around curves or up gradients. The surge pot is, a as rule, introduced through a mounting opening present in the top of the fuel tank and is, as a rule, secured against the bottom of the fuel tank for the fastening thereof in the fuel tank. In this way, the mounting of the feed unit with the surge pot is particularly simple.
Modern motor vehicles require a surge pot of particularly large volume since even a brief interruption in the supply of fuel can, for instance, cause damage to the catalytic converter and therefore must be definitely avoided. Furthermore, a fuel pump and other parts of a fuel feed system for the internal combustion engine are arranged in the surge pot, they however limiting the volume of the surge pot.
If the dimensions of the surge pot were to be increased, this would require a correspondingly large mounting opening in the top of the fuel tank. A large mounting opening must, however, be sealed-off in expensive fashion in order to avoid evaporation of the fuel. Furthermore, the fuel tanks of modern motor vehicles are frequently constructed with a large number of angles so that the mounting opening cannot be made as large as might be desired.